17 Apr 2018
Never heard of the holiday celebrated every May 1 since 1958? You re not alone. But with its roots firmly in bucking communism and, yes, the Russians, Loyalty Day is as American as apple pie and as anti-communist as the star spangled banner.
Most recently recognized in an official proclamation by President Donald Trump, Loyalty Day was celebrated even before becoming an honest to God legal holiday in 1958.
Before its 1955 name change to Loyalty Day, it was in 1921 dubbed Americanization Day and founded essentially out of fear or maybe just a load of good capitalist feelings sparked by the First Red Scare as the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia coincided with a growing U.S. labor movement and fears of anarchists.
making may day, labor day, created this other lay day. in september, to sort of make sure that they didn t have an official national holiday that would be the occasion for mobilization and labor militancy. there s a sort of interesting history is that may day, because it became the national holiday of the communist regimes, of particularly the ussr after the revolution there, and other places. then the anti-communists in the u.s. push for may day to be americanization day in the 1920s. and then law day. and then law day. a celebration of our opposition to those, to those forces. we talk about the concept of the general strike and the fate of the strike in the last 50 years. and bill, there s something you wanted to say about strikes. the critical thing we have to get is that with patco, that s when we really lose the right to strike. please explain what patco is. the firing of air traffic controllers who went on strike in 1981 by ronald reagan. and there s this excellent book